On today's episode we open with the wedding party after our oldest's wedding ceremony. This also leads us into the Father's Day weekend. Alan shares his Father's Day celebration and how we did things just a little different this year. We also talk about how easy it is to fall off the plan when you have so much going on, but we can always get back on the horse the very next day. We end with a focus on how we are looking forward to getting back to a sense of normalcy in the coming weeks.

Murphy bed

Today we explain why we were absent last week. Our eldest daughter got married and we wanted to recap that. Then, Monday was Memorial Day and we spent a good part of the day doing something with friends we had never done before and that was going on a winery tour. Then we discuss some of the challenges with our youngest moving back home and how it relates with the youngest child syndrome. This led us to talk about being involved in our children's lives, including school and when they were starting to think about engaging in adult activities. We both encourage parents to instill in their children a love of reading and of learning. As we end, we both reiterate we want to be as healthy and as energetic as we can, because we want to be able to continue being a part of our kids' lives and, one day, our grand kids' lives. We want to be able to keep up with them and never miss out on a moment.

On this week's episode, we examine stress and how it factors into our lives and how to mitigate it in terms of having an adult child move back into the home or with the wedding of one of our children. We breakdown the difference of setting rules with a younger child versus the returning adult child. We also talk about how important it is for the kids to have the wedding they want and not what we would suggest. We also talk a little bit about some firsts on our homestead, like making heavy cream for butter and making mozzerlla cheese. We finish with a reminder that whatever stress you have, it's always lessened when taking time at the end of the day to be with each other and decompress from the day.

cream separator

This episode, coming out just on the backside of Mother's Day weekend, focuses a lot on the qualities and facts about being a mom. From being extraordinary multitaskers, to shaping brain development in their children to economic powerhouses and emotional anchors, moms are amazing! Mom's really are the glue that holds families together. They are a driver of success, they are a model of emotional resilience and they all too often sacrifice silently. Finally, in many cases, mom's help to shape the traditions and the expectations that end up becoming the legacies within families.

We mentioned a couple of items today on the show and if you are interested in them, consider clicking on our Amazon Affiliate links to order yours today:

Gardening gloves

https://amzn.to/4j5t98D

Ground cloth

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Today we look at how having a homestead can be a drain on a lot of your time. There is so much to do and you are always learning new things about the growing and making things. However, we need to make sure we are still taking time to nurture ourselves and our spousal relationships. So, we look at how to create micro-dates with each other along with shared tasks and creating an environment of mutual support.

Also in today's show, we discuss some homemade dishwahser tabs and some of the bottles we use to make tinctures and other medicial products.

Dishwasher tab recipe:

1 cup baking soda

1/4 cup citric acid

https://amzn.to/44oFYar

1 tablespoon Dawn dish soap

Mix together in a bowl, once combined, press into a silicone mold

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or icecube tray (I prefer the silicone since they are easier to pop out). Let dry overnight. The dropper bottles used for tinctures: https://amzn.to/431Z9oa

"We may earn a commission from these links, however, you as the consumer will not be charged more."

Thank you for listening!

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On this week's episode, hosts Alan and Susan open witih a response to a question from a listerner on suggestions for nutritious snacks while on-the-go. Susan then recounts a crazy toe injury that had her doing her best John McClane from Die Hard. The main topic of the show centers around a recent activity that Susan and Alan did, which they call a brain dump. Susasn decribed a sense of anxiety over having so many things on her mind and she was worried she would forget something. She suggested the two of them get it all down on a shared document. The two close with detailing the amount of physical labor inherent in bringing a homestead to life and, in some ways, it beats anything a gym membership would cost. Ultimately, the simple act of going outside and interacting with nature, at any level, is going to boost your mental well-being and your overall mood.

Here is the link to the energy bite recipe:

https://sjdhealthandfitness.com/2016/02/05/no-bake-energy-bites/

And here is our Amazon link (once again) to the goat milking machine we use:

https://amzn.to/42qjjry

"We may earn a commission from these links, however, you as the consumer will not be charged more."

Thank you for listening!

This week we are so excited to open with making cheese for the first time. It turned out so well, we are both looking forward to making more. We also just finished the Easter weekend and took a moment to reflect on the meaning and how it relates to the circle of life. We then spent a lot of time discussing the division of labor we have for not just our homestead, but also our home. It's important to be honest with each other and share in the tasks needed to keep a happy home. We then close the show with a dicussion of our youngest daughter getting ready to move back home and our expectation that she is working on a plan toward an independent future.

Here is the link we discussed for our raised beds:

https://amzn.to/3Rs8Mac

"We may earn a commission from these links, however, you as the consumer will not be charged more."

Thank you for listening!

Don't forget you can find us on X, Facebook and Instagram as well! If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to rate, review and share! Thank you!

Today we open with our latest adventure in homesteading -- milking our goats. We also spend time discussing how one of our daughter's and her husband really needed our help to save for a house. While we initially thought we would be sharing our home for six months, it quickly turned into 16 months, but we were happy to do what we could to make their dream of home ownershp become a reality. Part of our show is sharing our own experiences and what we've learned along the way. Ironically, when they first moved in, Susan and Lex engaged in an exercise to chart out all the things they would want to have if we really did have a large family compound one day. We say "ironic" because just as we were about to record, Susan was looking for some Post-It notes and stumbled across those old hand-written plans. So, we spend some time looking at that wish list to see how much we have already accomplished. This leads to our final segment where we each share our lists of the top five things we didn't expect when we started down the road of becoming homesteaders.

Here are the links of some of the items we used for milking our goats:

milk machine

https://amzn.to/42qjjry

funnel filter

https://amzn.to/3RMWLfw

disinfectant teat wipes

https://amzn.to/4j4gEed

teat dip cup

https://amzn.to/4ja5SDh

cleanser for equipment

https://amzn.to/42uKLnR

"We may earn a commission from these links, however, you as the consumer will not be charged more."

Don't forget you can find us on X, Facebook and Instagram as well! If you enjoy the show, please take a moment to rate, review and share! Thank you!